On Wednesday, three San Jose State University
freshmen were suspended and charged with hate crimes for their mistreatment of
a black roommate. Colin
Warren, Joseph Bomgardner, and Logan Beaschler have not yet been arrested
because campus police are
waiting for them to surrender.

According to the unnamed black roommate, Warren,
Bomgardner, and Beaschler began the school year in August by referring
their roommate as "Three-fifths." When he asked them to stop, they began calling him
"Fraction." They also:

Outfitted the shared dorm room suite with a
Confederate flag

Barricaded the claustrophobic student in his room

Wrote "nigger" on a dry-erase board in the living
room

Put a U-shaped bike lock around his neck and then
told him they lost the key

Tried the bike lock trick again a few weeks later

Put up Nazi symbols and pictures of Hitler in the
dorm

Drew pictures of pentagrams to alarm the Christian
student

The incidents were first reported to housing authorities by the black
student's father, who noticed the flag and the white board in the room during
an October visit. The parents also tried
to talk to the young men when they visited.

After the freshman's father talked
to the roommates and reported the matter, the freshman received what police
characterized as a "sarcastic apology note," signed only "The
Residents." The note mentions "the Beloved Reverend Doctor Martin
Luther King Jr." and urges the freshman to let bygones be bygones. It also
contains a warning of sorts in the postscript: "The Residents have
welcomed you, it is not advised to ignore the call of The Residents."

When asked why the black student didn't report the
behavior himself, he said he just hoped
it would stop. He also told university police he'd been afraid to study in
the room, and that he'd been locking his bedroom door at night because he was
scared of his roommates.

The young men charged on Wednesday admit to teasing,
but say their actions were not "racist." Like all racists, they claim their
actions were just harmless "pranks" and "jokes." Their underappreciated comedy
routines could send
them to jail for up to a year.

At SJSU, students rallied in support of the black student on
Thursday, some believing it takes too long for the university
to act on matters related to race. According to student Champagne Ellison, "They feel like, 'okay basically you all are here on
charity to begin with, so whatever issue that happens just be lucky that you
are here.'"